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STEPHEN  B»  WEEKS 

CU3S  0FI886;PH.D.  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSfTY 

LIBlRAlISr 

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This  book  must  not 
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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://www.archive.org/details/malungeonsOOdrom 


DRUNKENNESS   A   CEEVIE. 


469 


;^ 


only  a  monetary  sacrifice  for  the  first  two  offences,  until  the' 
people  become  thorouglily  apprised  of  the  existence  of  the 
law;  but,  afterwards  the  full  punishment  should  be  inflicted 
for  the  first  violation,  as  in  other  crimes. 

Insanity  from  drunkenness  is  more  dangerous  and  injuri- 
ous by  far  than  insanity  from  disease.  We  cannot  always 
tell,  in  either  case,  what  individual  lunatic  will  do  mischief, 
but  with  respect  to  involuntary  insanity,  we  place  all  the 
subjects  of  it  indiscriminately  under  observation  and  restric- 
tion, npt  for  the  purpose  of  punishment,  but  for  the  protec- 
tion of  society.  Here,  however,  is  a  class  of  lunatics  who 
deliberately  manufacture  their  own  delusions,  who  wilfully 
pervert  a  beneficent  gift  of  Providence  into  a  poison  and  a 
curse,  and  make  themselves  tlie  enemies  and  pests  of  their 
households,  and  the  communities  in  which  they  live,  scatter- 
ing everywhere  around  them  firebrands,  arrows,  and  death. 
Shall  they  not,  I  ask,  be  incarcerated,  not  only  for  the  s^,fety 
of  society,  but,  also,  as  a  punishment  for  their  crime? 

It  is  obvious  that  Ishere  is  no  other  way  whereby  this 
terrible  evil  under  our  present  form  of  civilization  can  be 
suppressed.  Prohibition  is  wron^  in  principle,  and  wholly  im- 
practicable. High  license  is  unjust,  anti-republican,  and  in- 
efficient. Whatever  natural  aversion,  then,  we  may  feel  to 
this  method,  as  every  true  man  must  shrink  from  the  idea  of 
all  punishment,  especially  when  he  contemplates  the  weak- 
nesses of  humanity  and  the  fearful  temptations  to  which  it  is 
liable  in  the  present  inharmonious  and  incongruous  condition 
of  things,  and  his  own  heart  must  bleed  with  sympathy,  we 
are  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of  adapting  to  this  crime  the  treat- 
ment analagous  to  that  wliich,  from  time  immemorial,  has 
been  pursued  in  relation  to  every  other;  while  we  fervently 
pray  that  the  glorious  day  will  soon  dawn,  when  a  higher,  and 
purer,  and  wiser  system  of  ethics  and  economics  will  lift  all 
classes  of  society  above  the  trials  and  cares  which  now  beset 
them. 


THE  MALUNGEONS. . 

)^^ft^ll 

BY    WILL   ALLEN   DKOMGOOLE/  '  ' 


Were  you  ever  when  a  child  half  playfully  told  "The  Malun- 
geons  will  get  you  "  ?  If  not,  you  were  never  a  Tennessee 
child,  as  some  of  our  fathers  were;  they  who  tell  us  all  that 
may  be  told  of  that  strange,  almost  forgotten  race,  concerning 
whom  history  is  strangely  silent.  Only  upon  the  records  of 
the  State  of  Tennessee  does  the  name  Eippear.  The  records 
show  that  by  act  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1834, 
when  the  "  Race  Question  "  played  such  a  conspicuous  part 
in  the  deliberations  of  that  body,  the  Malungeon,  as  a  '■'■free 
j^terson  of  color^''  was  denied  the  right  of  suifrage.  Right 
there  he  dropped  from  the  public  mind  and  interest.  Of  no 
value  as  a  slave,  with  no  voice  as  a  citizen,  what  use  could 
the  public  make  of  the  Malungeon  ?  When  John  Sevier 
attempted  to  organize  the  State  of  Franklin,  there  was  living 
in  the  mountains  of  Eastern  Tennessee  a  colony  of  dark- 
skinned,  reddish-brown  complexioned  people,  supposed  to  be 
of  Moorish  descent,  who  affiliated  with  neither  whites  nor 
blacks,  and  who  called  themselves  Malungeons,  and  claimed 
to  be  of  Portuguese  descent.  They  lived  to  themselves  exclu- 
sively, and  were  looked  upon  neither  as  negroes  nor  Indians. 

All  the  negroes  ever  brought  to  America  came  as  slaves  ; 
the  Malungeons  were  never  slaves,  and  until  1834  enjoyed 
all  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Even  in  the  Convention  which 
disfranchised  them,  they  were  referred  to  as  '■\free  persons  of 
color  "  or  "  Malungeons." 

Their  condition  from  the  organization  of  the  State  of 
Tennessee  to  the  close  of  the  civil  war  is  most  accurately 
described  by  John  A.  McKinley,  of  Hawkins  County,  who 
was  chairman  of  the  committee  to  which  was  referred  all 
matters  affecting  these  "/ree  persons  of  colore 

Said  he,  speaking  oifree  persons  of  color,  "It  means  Ma- 
lungeons if  it  means  anything.  Although  'fleecy  locks  and 
black  complexion '  do  not  forfeit  Nature's  claims,  still  it  is  true 
that  those  locks  aud  that  complexion  mark  every  one  of  the 


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A    TYPICAL    ^FALUXGEON. 
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.A^'b'X^- 


THE    MALUNGEONS.  471 

African  race,  so  long  as  he  remains  among' the  white  race,  as 
a  person, doomed  to  live  in  the  suburbs  of  society. 

"  Unenviable  as  is  the  condition  of  the  slave,  unlovely  as 
slavery  is  in  all  its  aspects,  bitter  as  is  the  draught  the  slave 
is  doomed  to  drink,  nevertheless,  his  condition  is  better  than 
that  of  the  '•free  man  of  color''  in  the  midst  of  a  community 
of  white  men  with  whom  he  has  no  interest,  no  fellow-feeling 
and  no  equality."  So  the  Constitutional  convention  left  these 
the  most  pitiable  of  all  outcasts  ;  denied  their  oath  in  court, 
and  deprived  of  the  testimony  of  their  own  color,  left  utterly 
hel]Dless  in  all  legal  contests,  they  naturally,  when  the  State 
set  the  brand  of  the  outcast  upon  them,  took  to  the  hills,  the 
isolated  peaks  of  the  uninhabited  mountains,  the  corners  of 
the  earth,  as  it  were,  where,  huddled  together,  they  became  a 
law  unto  themselves,  a  race  indeed  separate  and  distinct  from 
the  several  races  inhabiting  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

So  much,  or  so  little^  we  glean  from  the  records.  From 
history  we  get  nothing ;  not  so  much  as  the  name, — Malun- 
geons. 

In  the  farther  valleys  they  were  soon  forgotten :  only  now 
and  then  an  old  slave-mammy  would  frighten  her  rebellious 
charge  into  subjection  with  the  threat, — "  The  Malungeons 
will  get  you  if  you  aint  pretty."  But  to  the  people  of  the 
foot  hills  and  the  nearer  valleys  they  became  a  living  terror  ; 
sweeping  down  upon  them,  stealing  their  cattle,  their  provis- 
ions, their  very  clothing,  and  household  furniture. 

They  became  shiftless,  idle,  thieving,  and  defiant  of  all  law, 
distillers  of  brandy,  almost  to  a  man.  The  barren  height 
upon  which  they  located,  offered  hope  of  no  other  crop  so 
much  as  fruit,  and  they  were  forced,  it  would  appear,  to  uti- 
lize their  one  opportunity. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  some  few  enlisted  in  the 
army,  but  the  greater  number  remained  with  their  stills,  to 
pillage  and  plunder  among  the  helpless  women  and  children. 

Their  mountains  became  a  terror  to  travellers ;  and  not 
until  within  the  last  half  decade  has  it  been  regarded  safe  to 
cross  Malungeon  territory. 

Such  they  ivere  ;  or  so  do  they  come  to  us  through  tradi- 
tion and  the  State's  records.  As  to  what  they  are  any  who 
feel  disposed  may  go  and  see.     Opinion  is  divided  concern- 


472  THE   ARENA. 

ing  tliem,  and  tliey  have  their  own  ideas  as  to  their  descent. 
A  great  many  declare  them  mulattoes,  and  base  their  belief 
upon  the  ground  that  at  the  close  of  the  civil  war  negroes  and 
Makmgeons  stood  upon  precisely  the  same  social  footing, 
'-'•free  men  of  color "  all ;  and  that  the  fast  vanishing  hand- 
ful opened  their  doors  to  the  darker  brother,  also  groaning 
under  the  brand  of  social  ostracism.  This  might,  at  first 
glance,  seem  probable,  indeed,  reasonable. 

Yet  if  we  will  consider  a  moment,  we  shall  see  that  a  race 
of  mulattoes  cannot  exist  as  these  Malungeons  have  existed. 
The  race  goes  from  mulattoes  to  quadroons,  from  quadroons 
to  octoroons,  and  there  it  stops.  The  octoroon  women  bear 
no  children,  but  in  every  cabin  of  the  Malungeons  may  be 
found  mothers  and  grandmothers,  and  very  often  great- 
grandmothers. 

"  Who  are  they,  then  ?  "  you  ask.  I  can  only  give  you 
their  own  theory  —  if  I  may  call  it  such  —  and  to  do  this  I 
must  tell  you  how  I  found  them,  and  something  of  my  stay 
among  them. 

First.  I  saw  in  an  old  newspaper  some  slight  mention  of 
them.  With  this  tiny  clue  I  followed  their  trail  for  three 
yeai's.  The  paper  merely  stated  that  "  somewhere  in  the 
mountains  of  Tennessee  there  existed  a  remnant  of  people 
called  Malungeons,  having  a  distinct  color,  characteristics, 
and  dialect."  It  seemed  a  very  hopeless  search,  so  utterly 
were  the  Malungeons  forgotten,  ancl  I  was  laughed  at  no 
little  for  ni}^  "  new  crank."  I  was  even  called  ••'•  a  Malun- 
geon "  more  than  once,  and  was  about  to  abandon  my 
"  crank  "  when  a  member  of  the  Tennessee  State  Senate,  of 
which  I  happened  at  that  time  to  be  engrossing  clerk,  spoke 
of  a  brother  senator  as  being  "tricky  as  a  Malungeon." 

I  pounced  upon  him  the  moment  his  speech  was  completed, 
"  Senator,"  I  said,  "  what  is  a  Malungeon  ?  " 

"  A  dirty  Indian  sneak,"  said  he.  "  Go  over  yonder  and  ask 
Senator ;  they  live  in  his  district." 

I  went  at  once. 

"  Senator,  what  is  a  Malungeon  ?  "  I  asked  again. 

"  A  Portuguese  nigger,"  was  the  reply.  "  Representative 
T can  tell  you  all  about  them,  they  live  in  his  county." 

From  "district"  to  "county"  was  quick  travelling,  and 
into  the  House  of  Representatives  I  went,  fast  upon  the  lost 
trail  of  the  forgotten  Malungeons. 


THE    MALUNGEONS.  473 

"  Mr. ,"  said  I,  "  please  tell  me  what  is  a  Malungeon  ?" 

"A  Malungeon,"  said  he,  "isn't  a  nigger,  and  he  isn't  an 
Indian,  and  he  isn't  a  white  man.  God  only  knows  ivhat  he 
is.  /should  call  him  a  Democrat^  only  he  always  votes  the 
Republican  ticket."  I  merely  mention  all  this  to  show  how 
the  Malungeons  of  to-day  are  regarded,  and  to  show  how  I 
tracked  them  to  Newman's  Ridge  in  Hancock  County,  where 
within  four  miles  of  one  of  the  prettiest  county  towns  in 
Tennessee,  may  be  found  all  that  remains  of  that  outcast  race 
whose  descent  is  a  riddle  the  historian  has  never  solved.  In 
appearance  they  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  Cherokees, 
and  they  are  believed  by  the  people  round  about  to  be  a  kind 
of  half-breed  Indian. 

Their  complexion  is  a  reddish  brown,  totally  unlike  the 
mulatto.  The  men  are  very  tall  and  straight,  with  small, 
sharp  eyes,  high  cheek  bones,  and  straight  black  hair,  worn 
rather  long.  The  women  are  small,  below  the  average  height, 
coal  black  hair  and  eyes,  high  cheek  bones,  and  the  same  red- 
brown  complexion.  The  hands  of  the  Malungeon  women 
are  quite  shapely  and  pretty.  Also  their  feet,  despite  the 
fact  that  they  travel  the  sharp  mountain  trails  barefoot,  are 
short  and  shapely.  Their  features  are  wholly  unlike  those 
of  the  negro,  except  in  cases  where  the  two  races  have 
cohabited,  as  is  sometimes  the  fact.  These  instances  can  be 
readily  detected,  as  can  those  of  cohabitation  with  the 
mountaineer ;  for  the  pure  Malungeons  present  a  character- 
istic and  individual  appearance.  On  the  Ridge  proper,  one 
finds  only  the  pure  Malungeons  ;  it  is  in  the  unsavory  limits 
of  Black  Water  Swamp  and  on  Big  Sycamore  Creek,  lying 
at  the  foot  of  the  Ridge  between  it  and  Powell's  Mountain, 
that  the  mixed  races  dwell. 

In  Western  and  Middle  Tennessee  the  Malungeons  are  for- 
gotten long  ago.  And  indeed,  so  nearly  complete  has  been 
the  extinction  of  the  race  that  in  but  few  counties  of  Eastern 
Tennessee  is  it  known.  In  Hancock  you  may  hear  them,  and 
see  them,  almost  the  instant  you  cross  into  the  county  line. 
There  they  are  distinguished  as  the  "  Ridgemanites,"  or  pure 
"  Malungeons."  Those  among  whom  the  white  or  negro 
blood  has  entered  are  called  the  '•'■Black-Waters.''''  The 
Ridge  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  wild-cat  dis- 
tilling, being  crossed  by  but  one  road  and  crowned  with 
jungles  of  chinquapin,  cedar,  and  wahoo. 


474  THE   ARENA. 

Of  very  recent  years  the  dogs  of  the  law  have  proved  too 
sharp-eyed  and  bold  even  for  the  lawless  Malungeons,  so  that 
such  of  the  furnace  fires  as  have  not  been  extinguished  are 
built  underground. 

They  are  a  great  nuisance  to  the  people  of  the  county  seat, 
where,  on  any  public  day,  and  especially  on  election  days, 
they  may  be  seen  squatted  about  the  streets,  great  strapping 
men,  or  little  broAvn  women  baking  themselves  in  the  sun 
like  mud  figures  set  to  dry. 

The  people  of  the  town  do  not  allow  them  to  enter  their 
dwellings,  and  even  refuse  to  employ  them  as  servants,  owing 
to  their  filthy  habit  of  chewing  tobacco  and  spitting  upon 
the  floors,  together  with  their  ignorance  or  defiance  of  the 
difference  between  meum  and  tuum. 

They  are  exceedingly  shiftless,  and  in  most  cases  filthy. 
They  care  for  nothing  except  their  pipe,  their  liquor,  and  a 
tramp  "  ter  towin."  They  will  walk  to  Sneedville  and  back 
sometimes  twice  in  twelve  hours,  up  a  steep  trail  through  an 
almost  unbroken  wilderness,  and  never  seem  to  suffer  the  least 
fatigue. 

They  are  not  at  all  like  the  Tennessee  mountaineer  either 
in  appearance  or  characteristics.  The  mountaineer,  however 
poor,  is  clean, —  cleanliness  itself.  He  is  honest  (I  speak  of 
him  as  a  class)  he  is  generous,  trustful,  until  once  betrayed ; 
truthful,  brave,  and  possessing  many  of  the  noblest  and  keen- 
est sensibilities.  The  Malungeons  are  filthy,  their  home  is 
filthy.  They  are  rogues,  natural,  "  born  rogues,"  close,  suspi- 
cious, inhospitable,  untruthful,  cowardly,  and,  to  use  their 
own  word  "  sneaky."  They  are  exceedingly  inquisitive  too, 
and  will  trail  a  visitor  to  the  Ridge  for  miles,  through  seem- 
ingly impenetrable  jungles,  to  discover,  if  may  be,  the  object 
of  his  visit.  They  expect  remuneration  for  the  slightest 
service.  The  mountaineer's  door  stands  open,  or  at  most 
the  string  of  the  latch  dangles  upon  the  "  outside."  He 
takes  you  for  what  you  seem  until  you  shall  prove  yourself 
otherwise. 


In    many   things   they   resemble    the    negro.     They    are 
exceedingly  immoral,  j^et  are  great  shouters  and  advocates  of 


THE   MALTTNGEONS.  475 

religion.  Tliey  call  themselves  Baptists,  although  their 
mode  of  baptism  is  that  of  the  Diinkard. 

There  are  no  churches  on  the  Ridge,  but  the  one  I  visited 
in  Black  Water  Swamp  was  beyond  question  an  inaugura- 
tio)i  of  the  colored  element.  At  this  church  I  saw  white 
women  Avith  negro  babies  at  their  breasts  —  Malungeon 
women  with  white  or  with  black  husbands,  and  some,  indeed, 
having  the  three  separate  races  represented  in  their  children, 
showing  thereby  the  gross  immorality  that  is  practised  among 
them.  I  saw  an  old  negro  whose  wife  was  a  white  woman, 
and  who  had  been  several  times  arrested,  and  released  on  his 
plea  of  "  Portygee  "  blood,  which  he  declared  had  colored  his 
skin,  and  not  Afi-ican. 

The  dialect  of  the  Malungeons  is  a  cross  between  that  of  the 
mountaineer  and  the  negro, —  a  corruption,  perhaps,  of  both. 
The  letter  R  occupies  but  small  place  in  their  speech,  and 
they  have  a  peculiar  habit  of  omitting  the  last  letter,  some- 
times the  last  syllable  of  their  words.  For  instance  "  good 
night  "  —  is  "  goo'  night."  "  Give  "  is  '^  gi'  "  etc.  They  do 
not  drawl  like  tlie  mountaineers  but,  on  the  contrary,  speak 
rapidly  and  talk  a  great  deal.  The  laugh  of  the  Ma- 
lungeon woman  is  the  most  exquisitely  musical  jingle,  a 
perfect  ripple  of  sweet  sound.  Their  dialect  is  exceedingl}^ 
difficult  to  write,  owing  to  their  habit  of  curtailing  their 
words. 

The  pure  Malungeons,  that  is  the  old  men  and  women, 
have  no  toleration  for  the  negro,  and  nothing  insults  them 
so  much  as  a  suggestion  of  negro  blood.  Many  pathetic 
stories  are  told  of  their  battle  against  the  black  race,  which 
they  regard  as  the  cause  of  their  downfall,  the  annihilation, 
indeed,  of  the  Malungeons,  for  when  the  races  began  to  mix 
and  to  intermarry,  and  the  expression,  "A  Malungeon- 
nigger"  came  into  use,  the  last  barrier  vanished,  and  all 
were  regarded  as  somewhat  upon  a  social  level. 

They  are  very  like  the  Indians  in  many  respects, —  their 
fleetness  of  foot,  cupidity,  cruelty  (as  practised  during  the 
days  of  their  illicit  distilling),  their  love  for  the  forest,  their 
custom  of  living  without  doors,  one  might  almost  say, —  for 
truly  the  little  hovels  could  not  be  called  homes, —  and  their 
taste  for  liquor  and  tobacco. 

Tliey  believe  in  witchcraft,  "  yarbs,"  and  more  than  one 


476  THE   ARENA. 

"  charmer "  may  be  found  among  them.  They  will  "  rub 
away  "  a  wart  or  a  mole  for  ten  cents,  and  one  old  squaw 
assured  me  she  had  some  "  blood  beads  "  that  '•'■  wair  bounter 
heal  all  manner  o'  blood  ailimints." 

They  are  limited  somewhat  as  to  names  :  their  principal 
families  being  the  MuUins,  Gorvens,  Collins,  and  Gibbins. 

They  resort  to  a  very  peculiar  method  of  distinguishing 
themselves.  Jack  Collins'  wife  for  instance  will  be  Mary 
Jack.  His  son  will  be  Ben  Jack.  His  daughters'  names 
will  be  similar ;  Nancy  Jack  or  Jane  Jack,  as  the  case  may 
be,  but  always  having  the  father's  Christian  name  attached. 

Their  homes  are  miserable  hovels,  set  here  and  there  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  wilderness.  Very  few  of  their  cabins 
have  windows,  and  some  have  only  an  opening  cut  through 
the  wall  for  a  door.  In  winter  an  old  quilt  is  hung  before 
it  to  shut  out  the  cold.  They  do  not  welcome  strangers 
among  them,  so  that  I  went  to  the  Ridge  somewhat  doubtful 
as  to  my  reception.  I  went,  however,  determined  to  be  one  of 
them,  so  I  wore  a  suit  as  nearly  like  their  own  as  I  could  get 
it.  I  had  some  trouble  securing  board,  but  I  did  succeed  at 
last  in  doing  so  by  paying  the  enormous  sum  of  fifteen  cents 
a  day.  I  was  put  to  sleep  in  a  little  closet  opening  off  the 
family  room.  M}''  room  had  no  windows,  and  but  the  one 
door.  The  latch  was  carefully  removed  before  I  went  in,  so 
that  I  had  no  means  of  egress,  except  through  the  family 
room,  and  no  means  by  which  to  shut  myself  in.  My  bed 
was  of  straw,  not  the  sweet-smelling  straw  we  read  of.  The 
Malungeons  go  a  long  way  for  their  straw,  and  they  evidently 
make  it  go  a  long  way  when  they  do  get  it.  I  was  called  to 
breakfast  the  next  morning  while  the  gray  mists  still  held 
the  mountain  in  its  arms.  I  asked  for  water  to  bathe  my  face 
and  was  sent  to  "  ther  branch,"  a  beautiful  little  mountain 
stream  crossing  the  trail  some  few  hundred  yards  from  the 
cabin. 

Breakfast  consisted  of  corn  bread,  wild  honey,  and  bitter 
coffee.  It  was  prepared  and  eaten  in  the  garret,  or  roof-room, 
above  the  family  room.  A  few  chickens,  the  only  fowl  I 
saw  on  the  Ridge,  also  occupied  the  roof  room.  Coffee  is 
quite  common  among  the  Malungeons ;  they  drink  it  without 
sweetening,  and  drink  it  cold  at  all  hours  of  the  day  or 
night.    They  have  no  windows  and  no  candles,  consequently, 


THE    MALDNGEONS.  477 

tliey  retire  with  the  going  of  the  daylight.  Many  of  their 
cabins  have  no  floors  other  than  that  wliich  Nature  gave,  but 
one  that  I  remember  had  a  floor  made  of  trees  slit  in  half, 
the  bark  still  on,  placed  with  the  flat  side  to  the  ground. 
The  people  in  this  house  slept  on  leaves  with  an  old  gray 
blanket  for  covering.  Yet  the  master  of  the  house,  who 
claims  to  be  an  Indian,  and  who,  without  doubt,  possesses 
Indian  blood,  draws  a  pension  of  twenty-nine  dollars  per 
month.  He  can  neither  read  nor  write,  is  a  lazy  fellow,  fond 
of  apple  brandy  and  bitter  coffee,  has  a  rollicking  good  time 
with  an  old  fiddle  which  he  plays  with  his  thumb,  and  boasts 
largely  of  his  Cherokee  grandfather  and  his  government  j^en- 
sion.  In  one  part  of  his  cabin  (there  are  two  rooms  and  a 
connecting  shed)  the  very  stumps  of  the  trees  still  remain. 
I  had  my  artist  sketch  him  sitting  upon  the  stump  of  a  mon- 
ster oak  which  stood  in  the  very  centre  of  the  shed  or  hall- 
way. 

This  family  did  their  cooking  at  a  rude  fireplace  built 
near  the  spring,  as  a  matter  of  convenience. 

Another  family  occupied  one  room,  or  apartment,  of  a 
stable.  The  stock  fed  in  another  (the  stock  belonged,  let 
me  say,  to  someone  else)  and  the  "  cracks "  between  tlie 
logs  of  the  separating  partition  were  of  such  depth  a  small 
child  could  have  rolled  from  the  bed  in  one  apartment  into 
the  trough  in  the  other.  How  they  exist  among  such  squalor 
is  a  mystery. 

Their  dress  consists,  among  the  women,  of  a  short  loose 
calico  skirt  and  a  blouse  that  boasts  of  neither  hook  nor  but- 
ton. Some  of  these  blouses  were  fastened  with  brass  pins 
conspicuously  bright.  Others  were  tied  together  by  means 
of  strings  tacked  on  either  side.  They  wear  neither  shoes 
nor  stockings  in  the  summer,  and  many  of  them  go  barefoot 
all  winter.  The  men  wear  jeans,  and  may  be  seen  almost 
any  day  tramping  barefoot  across  the  mountain. 

They  are  exceedingly  illiterate,  none  of  them  being  al)le 
to  read.  I  found  one  school  among  them,  taught  by  an  old 
Malungeon,  whose  literary  accomplishments  amounted  to  a 
meagre  knowledge  of  the  alphabet  and  the  spelling  of  words. 
Yet,  he  was  very  earnest,  and  called  lustily  to  the  "  chiller- 
ing"  to  "spry  up,"  and  to  "learn  the  book." 


478  THE  ARENA. 

This  school  was  located  in  the  loveliest  spot  my  eyes  ever 
rested  upon.  An  eminence  overlooking  the  beautiful  valley 
of  the  Clinch  and  the  purple  peaks  beyond.  Billows  and 
billows  of  mountains,  so  blue,  so  exquisitely  wrapped  in  their 
delicate  mist-veil,  one  almost  doubts  if  they  be  hills  or 
heaven.  While  through  the  slumbrous  vale  the  silvery 
Clinch,  the  fairest  of  Tennessee's  fair  streams,  creeps  slowly, 
like  a  drowsy  dream-river,  among  the  purple  distances. 

The  eminence  itself  is  entirely  barren  save  for  one  tall 
old  cedar  and  the  schoolmaster's  little  log  building.  It 
presents  a  very  weird,  wild,  yet  majestic  scene,  to  the  travel- 
ler as  he  climbs  up  from  the  valley. 

Near  the  schoolhouse  is  a  Malungeon  grave-yard.  The 
Malungeons  are  very  careful  for  their  dead.  They  build  a 
kind  of  floorless  house  above  each  separate  grave,  many  of 
the  homes  of  the  dead  being  far  better  than  the  dwellings  of 
the  living.  The  graveyard  presents  the  appearance  of  a 
diminutive  town,  or  settlement,  and  is  kept  with  great 
nicety  and  care.  They  mourn  their  dead  for  years,  and  every 
friend  and  acquaintance  is  expected  to  join  in  the  funeral 
arrangements.  They  follow  the  body  to  the  grave,  some- 
times for  miles,  afoot,  in  single  file.  Their  burial  ceremonies 
are  exceedingly  interesting  and  peculiar. 

They  are  an  unforgiving  people,  although,  unlike  the 
sensitive  mountaineer,  they  are  slow  to  detect  an  insult,  and 
expect  to  be  spit  upon.  But  injury  to  life  or  property  they 
never  forgive.  Several  odd  and  pathetic  instances  of  Ma- 
lungeon hate  came  under  my  observation  while  among  them, 
but  they  would  cover  too  much  space  in  telling. 

Within  the  last  two  years  the  railroad  has  struck  within 
some  thirty  miles  of  them,  and  its  effects  are  becoming  very 
apparent.  Now  and  then  a  band  of  surveyors,  or  a  lone 
mineralogist  will  cross  PowelFs  mountain,  and  pass  through 
Mulberry  Gap  just  beyond  Newman's  Ridge.  So  near,  yet 
never  nearer.  The  hills  around  are  all  said  to  be  crammed 
with  coal  or  iron,  but  Newman's  Ridge  can  offer  nothing  to 
the  capitalist.  It  would  seem  that  the  Malungeons  had  chosen 
the  one  spot,  of  all  that  magnificent  creation,  not  to  be  de- 
sired. 

Yet,  they  have  heard  of  the  railroad,  the  great  bearer  of 
commerce,  and  expect  it,  in  a  half-regretful,  half-pathetic 
way. 


THE   MALUNGEONS.  479 

They  have  four  questions,  always,  for  the  stranger  :  — 

"  Whatcher  name?  " 

"  Wher'cl  yer  come  fum  ?  " 

"  How  old  er  yer?" 

"Did  yer  hear  en'thin'  er  ther  railwa'  comin'  up  ther 
Ridge  ?  " 

As  if  it  might  step  into  their  midst  any  day. 

The  Malungeons  believe  themselves  to  be  of  Cherokee 
and  Portuguese  extraction.  They  cannot  account  for  the 
Portuguese  blood,  but  are  very  bold  in  declaring  themselves 
a  remnant  of  those  tribes,  or  that  tribe,  still  inhabiting  the 
mountains  of  North  Carolina,  which  refused  to  follow  the 
tribes  to  the  Reservation  set  aside  for  them. 

There  is  a  theory  that  the  Portuguese  pirates,  known  to 
have  visited  these  waters,  came  ashore  and  located  in  the 
mountains  of  North  Carolina.  The  Portuguese  "  streak " 
however,  is  scouted  by  those  w^ho  claim  for  the  Malungeons  a 
drop  of  African  blood,  as,  quite  early  in  the  settlement  of 
Tennessee,  runaway  negroes  settled  among  the  Cherokees,  or 
else  were  captured  and  adopted  by  them. 

However,  with  all  the  light  possible  to  be  thrown  upon 
them,  the  Malungeons  are,  and  will  remain,  a  myster}'.  A 
more  pathetic  case  than  theirs  cannot  be  imagined.  They 
are  going,  the  little  space  of  hills  'twixt  earth  and  heaven 
allotted  them,  will  soon  be  free  of  the  dusky  tribe,  whose  very 
name  is  a  puzzle,  and  whose  origin  is  a  riddle  no  man  has 
unravelled.  The  most  that  can  be  said  of  one  of  them 
is,  "  He  is  a  Malungeon,"  a  synonym  for  all  that  is  doubtful 
and  mysterious  —  and  unclean. 


THE  TEST  or  ELDEE  PILL. 


BY   HAMLIN   GARLAND. 


Old  man  Bacon  was  pinching  forked  barbs  on  a  wire  fence 
one  rainy  day  in  July,  when  his  neighbor  Jennings  came 
along  the  road  on  his  way  to  town.  Jennings  never  went  to 
town  "  except  when  it  rained  too  hard  to  work  out  doors,"  his 
neighbors  said  ;  and  of  old  man  Bacon  it  was  said  he  "  never 
rested  nights  n'r  Sundays." 

Jennings  pulled  up, —  "  Good  morning,  neighbor  Bacon." 

"  Mornin',"  rumbled  the  old  man  without  looking  up. 

"  Taking  it  easy,  as  usual,  I  see.  Think  it's  going  to  clear 
up?" 

"  May,  an'  may  not.  Don't  make  much  diffirunce  t'me," 
growled  Bacon,  discouragingly. 

"Heard  about  the  plan  for  a  church?  " 

"Naw." 

"Well,  we're  goin'  to  hire  Elder  Pill  from  Douglass  to 
come  over  and  preach  every  Sunday  afternoon  at  the  school- 
house,  an'  we  want  help  t'  pay  him,  —  the  laborer  is  worthy 
of  his  hire." 

"  Sometimes  he  is  an'  then  agin  he  aint.  Y'  needn't  look 
t'me  f'r  a  dollar.     I  aint  got  no  intrust  in  y'r  church." 

"  Oh  yes  you  have  —  besides  y'r  wife." 

"She  aint  got  no  more  time 'n  I  have  t' go  t'  church. 
We're  obleeged  to  do  bout  all  we  c'n  stand  t'  pay  our 
debts,  let  alone  try'n'  to  support  a  preacher."  And  the 
old  man  shut  the  pinchers  up  on  a  barb  with  a  vicious 
grip. 

Easy  going  Mr.  Jennings  laughed  in  his  silent  way. 

"I  guess  you'll  help  when  the  time  comes,"  and  clicking  to 
his  team  drove  off. 

"  I  guess  I  won't,"  muttered  the  grizzled  old  giant  as  he 
went  on  with  his  work.  Bacon  was  what  is  called  a  "  land 
poor  "  in  the  West ,  that  is  he  had  more  land  than  money ; 
still  he  was  able  to  give  if  he  felt  disposed.  It  remains  to 
say  that  he  was  7iot  disposed,  being  a  "  sceptic  and  a  scoffer." 

480 


^ 


■-vi,i 


X^'-^'-K 


-«!«>^\'''-''^'  "'""-' 


V 


AX.    .:  "     jc^ 


-<. 


